Gandhi was an
independent thinker. He looked at all ideas afresh. He believes that
modern medicine is the bane of man when used to perpetuate bad
habits. Unpleasant reactions to food, drink or bad habits are our
body's way of telling us to form better habits but instead we resort
to medicine to mask the symptoms and inculcates faith in our body's
own self-healing mechanisms. Gandhi’s book on “Keys to Health” is
one of the most popular than all of his writings which sheds light
on importance of his ideas regarding health.

It is necessary to
understand the meaning of the word health, which means body ease. A
healthy man is a person whose body is free from disease and can
carry on his normal activities without fatigue. Gandhi states that
it is necessary to have knowledge about one’s body which most of
them are ignorant about. He states that human body is composed of
five elements which ancient philosophers have described as Earth,
Water, Vacancy, Light and Air. He further states that good working
of the human body depends upon the harmonious activity of the
various component parts. The first element Air without which we
can’t live is surrounded us on all sides. Gandhi says that those who
do not know how to breathe should take breathing exercises, further
he gives the importance of cleaning the nostrils and the importance
of sleeping under open sky. The second element Water which is basic
necessity of life should be pure and it’s the municipality’s
responsibility to provide clean water and to maintain the sewage and
drainage system. Hydrotherapy is also a well known therapy
especially “Kuhne’s book on Nature Cure”. The third element Earth
which can be used as nature’s way to treat ailments i.e., mud
poultices to cue scorpion sting, constipation ordinary boils etc.
The other element light which we get from sun has many uses such as
sunbaths. The last vacancy which can be also termed as Akash
(ETHER) which helps to maintain and regain health.

Gandhi states that
observing Brahmacharya lead to a healthy life. It is the mode of
life which leads to realization of God. The realization is through
practicing self-restraint of senses. He further says that if there
is determination to control the thought and the action, victory is
sure to follow. Slavery of one’s animality is perhaps the worst of
all.

The next point to
focus on is: what is the use of the human body? Gandhi replies to it
that, “everything in the world can be used and abused and it applies
to our body too. We abuse it when we use it for selfish purposes, in
order to harm are body. It is put to right use if we exercise
self-restraint and dedicate ourselves to the service of the whole
world.

Further Gandhi
divides food into three categories: vegetarian, flesh and mixed.
According to him, vegetarian is best among all followed by mixed.
Gandhi states the importance of milk, cereals, pulses, fruits,
vegetables, fats and the proportion in which it should be used. In
his opinion there are definite drawbacks in taking meat as in order
to get meat we have to kill. Regarding condiments Gandhi says, that
body requires certain salts which mostly occur naturally in various
food stuffs and from his personal experiments of fifty years is that
there is no need for such condiments to keep body healthy except is
necessary for medicinal purposes. Regarding sweets he is of the
opinion that jaggery is the best among all and fried food should ne
avoided. Moving forward let us consider how often and how much to
eat ? Here Gandhi replies, “Food should be taken as a matter of duty
even as a medicine to sustain the body, never for the satisfaction
of palate. There should be self-control as such habits of elders
influence children to some extent.” Then Gandhi focuses on how often
should one eat? So the general rule is to take three meals.

Further Gandhi
states that, “Drugs and drink are the two arms of the devil with
which he strikes his helpless slaves into stupefaction and
intoxication.” Gandhi gave various reasons for drinking such as
imitating the rich people, addiction formed during medicinal use, to
get assistance form whites during British rule, environment and
social disorganization, easy availability of it, etc. The effects
are not only financial loss but also moral loss. Police Training
School puts compulsion on its inmates to consume wine and into
meat-eating. Reacting on it Gandhi says, that such a compulsion
further aggravates the problem in leads to nuisance in society and
discouraging vegetarians from taking up police service. This
addiction degrades them and they forget the distinction between
wife, mother and sister and indulge in crimes which are very
shameful. Gandhi exempts Europeans from the use of alcohol since
upto some extent it’s a necessity in Frigid Zone. Gandhi offers
solution to this problem by stating that prohibition should begins
by preventing any shop being licensed to stop it from becoming
public nuisance. Though Government earns huge revenue from it, for
the betterment on people it should be banned except used for
medicinal purposes. Offering other solution as picketing and
prohibition of liquor use and sales is the responsibility of women.
Gandhi chooses women for this work as he thinks that women are
naturally assigned with superior power and strength. Further the
distress in this case is felt by women in their homes. Both literate
and illiterate women should participate in this agitation. Gandhi
also stated rules and methods for picketing. It was observed that
agitation by women was successful and successfully appealed to the
addicts to give up the habit.

Focusing on tadi,
Parsis are of the opinion that though it’s an intoxicant it helps in
digestion of food. Gandhi examined this point in detail and came to
conclusion that, tadi use can lead to nuisance in society and so it
can have no lace in man’s food. The advantages of tadi are available
in other food-stuffs. Tadi is made from fresh khajuri juice which is
not intoxicant and its known as nira which is useful for
constipation. Tadi is the fermented form of khajuri juice which is
intoxicant. Moving forward Gandhi sates that khajuri is variety of
palm tree and palm tree is useful for jaggery making. But since its
been used to make tadi there is shortage of sugar which affects the
poor people the most.

Another vice was
opium abuse which started during British as they commercialized it
in India. He also states the evils of smoking cigarettes which is
both among young and old. Earlier smoking was limited and was done
in privacy but under the influence of Englishmen it became
widespread in use. Gandhi gave various ill-effects of smoking like
impaired eye-sight, problem in digestion, etc. The most humiliating
thing related to smoking was during Gandhian period certain company
sold cigarettes bearing the name of “Mahatma Gandhi” cigarettes
because tobacco use was opposed by Gandhi. Gandhi further implied
that, ‘if every smoker stopped the dirty habit of making his mouth a
chimney to foul breath by making a present of his savings to some
national cause, he would benefit both himself and the nation.

Moving forward to
the addiction of tea and coffee which most of Indians have, Gandhi
implies that this is not necessity of life. In India the custom of
taking tea is of recent origin and it was originated in China.
People use it to stay awake but it has its side effects if used
excessively and that one should not become slave to such things. So
the best is to get rid of this habit, but if the habit cannot be
given up, the best way of making tea is to pour the boiling water
over tea leaves, and immediately pour it into a cup. The colour of
the brew should be hay and not red. Giving up this habit one will
find out for them how much they are able to save.

The most important
reason for illness in India is the defective and harmful method of
answering calls of nature. The unhygienic toilets and defecating in
open leads to major diseases. Hence sanitation is a major problem.
For improving the conditions Gandhi had made a committee in Africa
and also in Ahmadabad where volunteers would visit every nook and
corner and also homes to check and educate regarding sanitation. But
it was later observed that old habits die hard. People are clean as
individuals but not as members of society. In villages people bathe,
wash clothes and drink water from same stream which is very
unhygienic. Gandhi was quiet disturbed by the untidy sight of
pilgrimage places in India. It is the work of municipalities and
also common man to keep the surrounding clean. Also every religion
stresses on the importance of cleanliness and Gandhi stated that
Indians should imitate the western countries regarding cleanliness.
Further Gandhi focused on sanitation in camps. Though it is
difficult to maintain but Gandhi has offered various solutions in
his book “Social Service, Work and Reform Vol-1” ways to maintain
hygiene and one of the best solution offered by him was every person
should become bhangi i.e. sweeper to maintain cleanliness and this
was practiced by Gandhi himself.

Gandhi during his
visit to England had joined Vegetarian Society in England. There he
began with his own experiments in dietetics wherein he faced
hardships. He also started a Vegetarian Club in Bayswater locality
in England. He suggests that all over the country everyone should
concentrate his efforts upon the plague spots which they visit. One
should not get baffled by this vast problem but attend to the work
that comes to one’s way and the donors should donate generously for
improvement of society. Gandhi further mentioned that, ‘one must not
live in order to eat and drink and be merry, but eat and drink in
order to make bodies temples of God and to use them for the service
of man.’ Gandhi also advised the Government to convert the liquor
dens into restaurants for the supply of clean and wholesome
refreshments. There should be recreation booths where tired workers
and rest and get healthy and cheap refreshments so they don’t engage
into vices. Hundreds of people from New York and some from overseas
gathered in the Macus Garvey Park, Harlem, Manhattan for a public
health initiative — the Mahatma Gandhi Health and Peace Walk on 2nd
October 2010. The group uses Mahatma Gandhi’s words and example of
walking regularly to maintain one’s health and confront the obesity
epidemic worldwide, as well as diabetes and heart problems.